The ‘Shang-Chi’ End-Credits Scenes Stand Among The Greatest In The MCU

(Spoilers for Shang-Chi and the MCU will obviously be found below.)

Pushing a superhero tentpole movie out the door in less than two years after initial announcement is a substantial feat during normal times, so Destin Daniel Cretton definitely did the thing with Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings during, well, our current times. The film’s a stunning action piece that worldbuilds like a mofo and gives us plenty of dragon action, and the end-credit scenes manage to top them all. Well, maybe all of them. Nick Fury’s announcement of the Avengers initiative probably can’t be beat, but let’s just say that we don’t simply have people sitting around and fretting over the Tesseract. Instead, the first end-credits scene does a lot to tie this otherwise free-standing movie to the MCU with much appreciated humor on the side.

First, it’s worth noting that we don’t precisely know when this movie falls into the MCU timeline. Much of the action takes place in San Francisco (with no Ant-Man run-ins), and it’s set in a time where smart phones are all the rage, yet full-on in-flight meals are offered in coach (which hasn’t happened since pre 9/11). That’s a wholly confusing combination, and we’re also clearly observing a post-snap world, as indicated during a casual conversation early-on in the movie. And it’s also a time when Doctor Strange sidekick Wong is participating in a fight club (where he bests Tim Roth’s Abomination) that’s run by Shang-Chi’s estranged sister, Xialing. That’s fun.

In the first end-credits scene, Wong reappears to pluck Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) out of their post-climactic return to reality. He takes them to analyze the Ten Rings (the literal pieces or jewelry, not the personal army of Shang-Chi’s dad, Wenwu) and their origins. The end result is that the origins are mysterious and date back millennia, and the Ten Rings act as a sort-of beacon when activated. More importantly for our immediate purposes, though, Bruce Banner (not in Professor Hulk form, yet he still appears to be suffering from Infinity Gauntlet burns) and Carol Danvers (with long hair intact) are on hand to offer commentary. Then Carol pops off on a Captain Marvel adventure, Banner awkwardly wishes everyone well without knowing what to make of the rings, and Wong tells Shang-Chi and Katy that their lives have changed forever.

From there, we see Wong join his new friends for karaoke, which is simply delightful. Here’s what’s also great about this scene: it simply presents tons and tons of questions for the future and doesn’t make us feel slighted by not answering them. Also, hey, this is the first theater-only Marvel release in since the start of the pandemic, so it was nice to feel some levity. People freaking loved this scene.

And here’s a fan theory about the second end-credits scene, in which is a brief one that shows Xialing taking over her father’s organization and using it to train an army of fighters that just happen to be all female. We then see a message about the Ten Rings being scheduled for a return. Well, a Twitter user wants to know this: what if Xialing is actually training the rescued Black Widows? Well, timeline considerations aside, it’s not impossible!

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will arrive in February 2021.